Power

Will Louise Blouin own us all by 2016? The Art Newspaper has been rumoring that Blouin, the owner of ArtINFO and seven other art pubs, is in negotiations to buy the Armory Fair, along with Art Platform Los Angeles and Volta. We believe it.

So we felt now was the appropriate time to kick off AFC’s addition to ArtINFO’s ten days of power slideshows from the Art and Auction’s Power 100 list. The editors of ArtINFO have grouped the listed into categories such as auction power, design power, collector power, power personalities, power dealers, power to watch, traditional power, power players, and power patrons. This is Louise Blouin Power.

I’ll admit to having a biased interest in CNN’s gallery of artworks commissioned for the elections. I recommended a number of the artists for this feature, so it’s fascinating to see who made their final list and who the organization came up with themselves. Judging by the commissions, it appears Bravo’s cancelled Work of Art reality series has more influence on mainstream news media than I would have guessed.